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Polarization-Assisted Navigation and Water Vapor

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Polarization-Assisted Navigation and Water Vapor Projektarbeit Polarization-Assisted Navigation and Water Vapor Detection Realized with MEMS Ausgeführt am Institut für Angewandte Physik der technischen Universität Wien unter der Anleitung von Frau Prof.Dipl.-Ing.Dr.techn.Ille C. Gebeshuber und Herrn Univ.Prof. Mag.rer.nat. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Friedrich Aumayr durch Herrn Oliver Futterknecht Wehlistraße 366/2/2 A-1020 Wien Contents 1 Motivation 1 2 Polarization-Assisted Navigation Reference: [2, (Bence Suhai and G´abor Horv´ath,2004)]; [8, (Wikipedia(en), 2012)] 2 2.1 Polarization Vision in Humans Reference: [3, (Wikipedia(de), 2012)] ......................... 5 2.1.1 Techniques Vikings used for Nautical Navigation Reference: [10, (Leif K. Karlsen, www.nordskip.com/navnotes.pdf)] . 6 2.2 Detectors for Polarized Skylight in Insects Reference: [4, (Labhart T. and Meyer E. P.)]; [5, (Labhart T. et al)] . 8 2.2.1 Compound eye of the honeybee Reference: [6, (Brines M. L. and Gould J. L., 1982)]; [7, (Valera F. G. and Witanen W., 1970)]; [11, (Rossel S. and Wehner R., 1982)] . 10 2.2.2 What does an insect see Reference: [13, (Horridge A., 2009)]; [12, (Wehner R., 1982)] . 13 2.3 Realisation of polarization navigation in MEMS Reference: [15, (Scott A.M. and Lewin A.C. and Ridley K.D., 2008)]; [17, (en.wikipedia. org, 2012)] ....................................... 14 2.3.1 Problems with the scattering within the atmosphere Reference: [17, (en.wikipedia.org,2011)] .................... 15 2.4 A further skylight linked concept for ground navigation Reference: [16, de.wikipedia.org, 2012] ......................... 18 2.4.1 Posibility of visualizing the wavelength of the sunbeam Reference: [16, de.wikipedia.org, 2012] ..................... 19 3 Detection of Water Vapor Reference: [19, M.H. Schertenleib and H. Egli-Bronz, 2003] 20 3.1 Characteristics of water vapor [18, Wikipedia(de), 2012] ............................... 21 3.2 Methods of Cloud detection Reference: [20, W.B. Rossow and L. C. Garder, 1993]; [21, J. Haby, 2012] . 24 3.2.1 How to detect water vapor near ground Reference: [22, Wikipedia (en), 2012] ..................... 25 4 Resume 25 References 26 List of Figures 28 5 Appendix 30 1 Motivation "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." [1, (Wiktionary, 2012)]. There are many occasions, when we need to find a clue where to go. Right from the beginning of humanity it was crucial to navigate from A to B, for example to get from home to the next food source. Navigation without technical devices on land was pretty easy because of defined landmarks to see where we are and where we are heading. On the sea it was harder to detect the exact position, the only clue was the position of the sun and with clear skies, the stars. But the Vikings already had some sort of compass. They where using a gemstone which changes color when the angle between the point of view and the actual position of the Sun is changing. The navigator (termed Kendtmann in the language of the vikings) was setting the course by gathering all the clues from the polarization, landmarks and fish- and bird migrations. So the Vikings were capable to navigate even at night, just by the informations they gathered from the Gemstone and the bearing, which the navigator gathered from the home harbor. Nowadays we developed many different techniques and devices to improve our ability to locate our position and the destination we are heading to. For example; maps and compass or GPS navigation systems. Insects on the other side have no such equipment to get to their food sources and back home, the honeybee for example. The bee (Apis mellifera) is capable to find the way from and to her hive at day and nighttime. Bees are equipped with a very specialized vision; they are capable to see the pattern of polarized skylight. This ability in combination with the information from the sun and landmarks are most important for the survival of the species. Their capability is a very efficient way of navigation it is very compact and energy efficient so, for this purpose, we observe honeybees and look forward to configure MEMS that they capable to detect and analyse polarized skylight to use it as a cheap, energy efficient way to navigate just like those insects have been doing for about hundred thousand years. Furthermore it is very interesting to see if it is possible that MEMS detect and visualize small traces of water vapor near ground. There are some very interesting ways of tracking H2O -vapor in the atmosphere and some are very easy to adapt with MEMS. 1 2 Polarization-Assisted Navigation Reference: [2, (Bence Suhai and G´abor Horv´ath,2004)]; [8, (Wikipedia(en), 2012)] There are two different theories that describe the nature of light. In one light can be described as a wave and spreads as such, in the other theory light can be classified as a particle - and both theories can be proven. Combined, these theories lead to the principle of duality. For analyzing polarization the wave theory becomes our main objective. Before sunlight reaches our atmosphere it has no polarization, electric and magnetic fields are spreading in every direction. After entering the ionosphere, a defined part of the wavelength will be polarized. The greater the refraction angle, the greater is the part of the polarized light. The observed polarization pattern of the daytime sky are described by the Rayleigh sky model. The incoming light wave is reflected by air molecules, dust, aerosols and water, the resulting scattering causes the skylight to have a defined polarization pattern. These patterns are dependent on the celestial position of the sun; and at night by the reflected light of the moon. The light is highly polarized at a scattering angle of 90◦ from the light source. When the sun is located at the zenith the sky is polarized horizontally along the horizon. During twilight it is maximally polarized along the meridian and vertically at the horizon in the North and South, as showed in picture 1. Figure 1: This Picture indicates the degree of polarization (the Table on the right indicates the Polarization in degree) of the Rayleigh sky at sunset or sunrise. Ref: Halsw, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Degpolred.jpg This pattern is dependent on the position of the sun. Shown above is the pattern which appears at sunset or sunrise, where the highest polarization, vertically at the horizon, is in the North and South. The light blue band (approx. 40◦) represents the circle in the North-Zenith- South plane. The polarized patterns can be represented by a celestial triangle, based on the sun, zenith and the point of scattering, as shown in Figure 3. But the spherical triangle is not just defined by these three points but also by the interior angles as well: the three angular distances between the sun, zenith and the point defined by the observer. 2 Figure 2: Simple sketch illustrating the Azimuth. green : Horizon, orange : North and red : Azimuth. Ref: Mydriatic, vectorised by chris, http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php? title=Datei:Azimuth- Simple.svg&filetimestamp=20090725154905 In an altitude-azimuth grid (including the altitude of the sun and the azimuth, which is the angle between the observer and the natural path of the sun within the celestial sphere see Figure 2) the angular distance between the observed pointing and the sun and the angular distance between the point defined by the observer and the zenith changes while the angular distance between the sun and the zenith remains constant at one point in time. In the next Figure 4 we see the two changing angular distances as mapped onto an altitude-azimuth grid (altitude on the x-axis). Figure 3: The geometry representing the Rayleigh sky; γ denotes the angular distance between the sun and the point of scattering, θs is the solar zenith distance, θ is the angular distance between the observed point and the zenith,' is the angle between the zenith direction and the solar direction at the observed point and is the angle between the solar direction and the observed pointing at the zenith. Ref: Halsw, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Rayleigh-geometry.pdf & page=1 3 Figure 4: The top plot shows the angular distances between the observed pointing and the sun, the bottom plot between the observed pointing and the zenith. Ref: Halsw, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Soldis zendis.jpg We are focusing the angular distances of the triangle because those are crucial for the navigation abilities of the honeybee. There are three different models representing the different angles of the celestial triangle. There is the angle at the sun between the zenith direction and the pointing, dependent on the changing pointing and symmetrical between the Northern and Southern hemispheres (shown in the middle of figure 5), furthermore the angle at the zenith between the solar direction and the pointing which rotates around the celestial sphere (the right model in figure 5). But the most interesting is the angle at the observed pointing between the zenith direction and the solar direction: it is essential because of the dependency on the changing solar direction as the sun moves across the sky. Figure 5: The three interior angles of the celestial triangle. Ref: Halsw, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Solang ztelan stelan.jpg 4 Because the pattern of polarized skylight is changing by the movement of the sun and is even reliable at twilight, it is a perfect way to navigate. The best example is the halicitid bee (Magalopta genialis), which inhibits the rainforest's in Central America and scavenges before sunrise and after sunset.
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